Ryuutai Ondo
AI GROUP CO., LTD
Short description
Ryuutai Ondo is a pop-up café attached to a real estate showroom. The water-like glasshouse design allows passersby to see the atmosphere of the interior clearly, and also allows customers inside to see the scope of the building's base. The designer chose a minimalist décor to emphasize the personal style and character of the owner, a winner of an international coffee brewing competition, and selected furnishings that are gentle to the touch and warm to the senses. The cafe is a perfect balance of architecture and interior design, and even though it is a temporary space, it still retains a timeless feel.
This café is a temporary architecture that projects the feeling of an exhibition, where the presence of the owner and the atmosphere of the space are the items on display. The overall design emphasizes the feeling of inclusion and warmth, formless and gentle like water, and the concept of simple and geometric design echoes the attitude of coffee champions who brews coffee with mathematical logic. The designers have created a transparent, simple but at the same time eye-catching and unforgettable unique design.
The glasshouse design creates the fantastical image of a glowing box with glowing seats inside. The whole cafe is pushed forward so that passers-by can see the volume clearly. The shape of the glass corridor connecting the café and the reception center corresponds to the curved shape of the building base, and also echoes the rounded corners used extensively in the design, creating a gentle sense of wholeness. The monolithic roof gives the illusion of an amorphous shape, and the use of recessed lights with hidden frames in the interior makes the space appear seamless.
The intuitive and functional design of the cafe is one of the key points of the project, conveying the owner's precise logic and attitude. The location of the café allows showroom guests to smell the coffee from the driveway, and the design of the glass corridor allows customers to view the base of the building. Ryuutai Ondo integrates the architecture, the interior design, and the owner in a way that allows all three to express their own characteristics, and the intangible, minimalist style focuses on the project's main objective, which is to shine as a champion of coffee.
The designer uses a minimalistic visual style to create a design that will not be forgotten after a single glance. The simple and transparent design contrasts sharply with the surrounding buildings, arousing the curiosity of passersby. Naoto Fukasawa's warm furniture echoes the style of the café, and the use of wood veneer for the ceiling and flooring further accentuate the softness which permeates the whole design.
Due to Ryuutai Ondo being a temporary facility, the building materials chosen are simple and largely recyclable. In addition, all the furniture used in the café can be passed on and used after the cafe is dismantled. The extremely translucent glass house design introduces a lot of natural light. Not only does it reduce energy consumption but also keeps the space warm similar to a greenhouse, eliminating the need for artificial heating. The design is perfectly functional as well as warm and gentle.